>Jonathan,
>
>Curiously enough, CARIS is one of the words that Frederick Danker chose to
>illustrate one of the dimensions of the new edition of the Lexicon. He
>pointed out that the Christian habit of translating CARIS as "grace" clouds
>the plain use of the word in Greek, which covers the terrain of "favor,
>influence, gift." Part of the problem lies in the nuance of whether a CARIS
>is being offered or received.
>
>
>The usage to which you point looks clear enough to me in Greek, but I agree
>that it's hard to represent it simply in English. In the Didache (as in the
>gospels), the question is "if you love those who love you, POIA GAR CARIS?";
>we can see it as "what kind of a favor (are you doing)" or "what kind of
>gift (is that)?," but those miss the transactional flavor of CARIS that
>"what credit" suggests.
>
>CARIS SOI KAI EIRHNH,
>AKMA

Jonathon,a NT passage close to the Didache 1:3 reference is 1 Peter
2:18-20, where CARIS certainly means something other than grace. You might
want to look at one of the good commentaries of this letter for additional
info.